"Mr Businessman, you can't dress like me"
February 11th 2009 04:36
Ok, so this isn't an often quoted quote, but I really like it. If you don't recognise it, Jimi Hendrix sings it in his song "If 6 Was 9". And this is the reason I like it:
I think a lot of people are being pulled in two directions: one is in the direction of how they want to think and act, the other is in the direction of how they are told to think and act. For example, I have always had a fairly casual demeanor - I don't like to take things too seriously unless they really require it. Now in the area of work and school, this has caused me no end of problems, because they want to pull me in the direction of being "professional", or in other words, non-casual. So I have these conflicting forces: one is inside of me, telling me to act not necessarily casually, but appropriate to the situation (which often is casual, because I don't believe everything requires my full attention). The other force is from outside of me, which tells me to be "professional" or to "work hard". One force is the self, the other is the world.
I believe this polarity between self and world that I feel within myself is visible in all levels of life, not just in the individual. For example, art often centres around the "self", whereas business is centred around the "world". A good artist needs to go hard into exploring what their true self is, and disregard what the world says about that. Without a true self to express, their art would lack substance: after all, art is just a medium, not a message (thanks Steve Pavlina for clearing that one up). On the other hand, business (at least in the way most people think of business: going to work for a boss, trying to work up the corporate ladder etc) is all about the world. The same is true of the defence force, politics, and anything else that is worldly. You must adapt your true self to what is going on around you. Going hardcore into exploring your true self will do you no favours, rather, you must know on a deep level what attributes your organisation desires, and apply yourself as best you can to internalise those attributes.
Now, the reason I write this blog is because I notice a lot of people in current society are trying to get the best of both worlds. They want to put up with being a corporate ass-kisser 9-5 Monday to Friday in order that they can make money, money which allows them to be their "true selves" in their time off. I see these people at music festivals, concerts, galleries - anything which they can go to in order to feel like they are not ACTUALLY a corporate ladder-climber. They will discard their corporate identity for the weekend like a rag and dress in ways which completely depart from that world. Often, they are drawn to the world of the artist, the beatnik, the hippy... the world of the "true self". So we have guys like Jimi Hendrix, doing his thing and not worrying about the corporate bullshit world, then he sees these guys from that world all of a sudden trying to dress like him and be like him. So that they can get the best of both worlds: they can be rich like the fatcats, but authentic like the artists. It is at this point that Jimi says, "Mr Businessman, you can't dress like me". He knows that their attempt to be like him is pathetic, it is weak. It is inauthentic. It is also a slap in the face to the artists: "I can devote massive hours during the week to becoming a corporate slave, but during the weekend I can be just like you, even though you have to devote your whole life to your craft." And that is how a lot of people are living these days, including a lot of "artists". No wonder music is so shit these days.
I think a lot of people are being pulled in two directions: one is in the direction of how they want to think and act, the other is in the direction of how they are told to think and act. For example, I have always had a fairly casual demeanor - I don't like to take things too seriously unless they really require it. Now in the area of work and school, this has caused me no end of problems, because they want to pull me in the direction of being "professional", or in other words, non-casual. So I have these conflicting forces: one is inside of me, telling me to act not necessarily casually, but appropriate to the situation (which often is casual, because I don't believe everything requires my full attention). The other force is from outside of me, which tells me to be "professional" or to "work hard". One force is the self, the other is the world.
I believe this polarity between self and world that I feel within myself is visible in all levels of life, not just in the individual. For example, art often centres around the "self", whereas business is centred around the "world". A good artist needs to go hard into exploring what their true self is, and disregard what the world says about that. Without a true self to express, their art would lack substance: after all, art is just a medium, not a message (thanks Steve Pavlina for clearing that one up). On the other hand, business (at least in the way most people think of business: going to work for a boss, trying to work up the corporate ladder etc) is all about the world. The same is true of the defence force, politics, and anything else that is worldly. You must adapt your true self to what is going on around you. Going hardcore into exploring your true self will do you no favours, rather, you must know on a deep level what attributes your organisation desires, and apply yourself as best you can to internalise those attributes.
Now, the reason I write this blog is because I notice a lot of people in current society are trying to get the best of both worlds. They want to put up with being a corporate ass-kisser 9-5 Monday to Friday in order that they can make money, money which allows them to be their "true selves" in their time off. I see these people at music festivals, concerts, galleries - anything which they can go to in order to feel like they are not ACTUALLY a corporate ladder-climber. They will discard their corporate identity for the weekend like a rag and dress in ways which completely depart from that world. Often, they are drawn to the world of the artist, the beatnik, the hippy... the world of the "true self". So we have guys like Jimi Hendrix, doing his thing and not worrying about the corporate bullshit world, then he sees these guys from that world all of a sudden trying to dress like him and be like him. So that they can get the best of both worlds: they can be rich like the fatcats, but authentic like the artists. It is at this point that Jimi says, "Mr Businessman, you can't dress like me". He knows that their attempt to be like him is pathetic, it is weak. It is inauthentic. It is also a slap in the face to the artists: "I can devote massive hours during the week to becoming a corporate slave, but during the weekend I can be just like you, even though you have to devote your whole life to your craft." And that is how a lot of people are living these days, including a lot of "artists". No wonder music is so shit these days.
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